Re-Living Atlanta
WRFG to Re-Broadcast Oral History Series Beginning May 31st.
As part of its own 50th anniversary, community radio station WRFG 89.3 FM will re-air its “Living Atlanta” oral history documentary series on life in the city between the world wars.
Living Atlanta: Atlanta Life from World War 1 through World War 2 — WRFG 89.3 FM Atlanta
First broadcast between 1979 and 1980, the fifty episodes will begin airing Wed. May 31st at 4 p.m. and continue Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays through Sept. 22nd.
In a phone interview WRFG’s Director of Finance and Development Christopher Hollis said the episodes will also be uploaded to the station’s Mixcloud account after airing for later listening.
The project was one of WRFG’s most ambitious and was executive produced by sociologist and station co-founder Harlon Joye and white and black interviewers Clifford Kuhn and E. Bernard West.
Many of the individual interviews are now archived at The Atlanta History Center, but the radio rebroadcast will be of the edited episodes complete with narration and music.
Barbecue Bob’s “Atlanta Moan” served as theme song.
Close to 200 people were interviewed with an emphasis on various working-class blacks and whites. Race relations is a major topic along with economic conditions and labor issues, including working on the railroads.
First recorded on reel to reel then transferred to cassette tapes, Hollis digitized the episodes.
A disclaimer will air about the language the interview subjects used but words won’t be bleeped.
A book based on the interviews was released by the University of Georgia Press.
The project received grant funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities but was still a WRFG effort which relies heavily on volunteerism.
The station will celebrate its 50th anniversary July 15th at the Rialto.
WRFG 89.3 FM — 50th Anniversary (gsu.edu)
Hollis says The MixCloud and efforts like its Off-Air Community Archives of recorded public forums are a way to move beyond just terrestrial FM radio and utilize the station as a community resource.
While younger people may now get audio from phones or playlists, Hollis, himself in his early 30s, still sees the FM signal as a powerful, community organizing tool.
This summer’s broadcast course for new volunteers will include people in their 20s with a focus on public affairs programming. The online presence allows a platform for pilot programs that could find a place on the FM dial at some point.
WRFG airs its own and national progressive public affairs programs like Democracy Now.
Musically, the station is known for Good Morning Blues, plus world music, jazz, bluegrass, Americana, and other “hand-picked” music.
Joye’s long-running Fox’s Minstrel Show on Sunday nights is a kind of almanac of events with songs to match.
